my experience in the eighties on the Llano Estacado.
you only need and acre...maybe two.
For the house, the garden, the workshop, and the animal shelters
Anything else can be use for fields(grow your own feed?), pasture (let the critters find their OWN feed), wood lot...and if you are extremely lucky...a pond or stream.
note...everything needs FENCES...and they are NOT cheap.
If you're LUCKY, you can fence using native stone, dirt , sod, or timber. OR...you can buy stuff (wire, metal posts, livestock panels....etc, etc ....$$$) The more time you SPEND building with found stuff, the less money you SPEND buying stuff to build with.
But you're gonna SPEND...If you do NOT put up fences...you're gonna SPEND more.
Totally true! Fencing is a top 5 for every homestead and its not cheap.
when i tried it i was green as grass (raised in a town)...had NO idea what I was doing...there WAS no internet then..the Whole Earth Catalog hadn't been published YET. So I learned from trial and error...mostly error.
I learned REAL Quick...fences FIRST...animals next.
it's EASY to fence in a weiner pig....four months later...not so much.
LOL So true! Fences...a must have for any homestead.